1. Technical Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a device that thermally maintains an elevated level of a hot beverage.
2. Background Art
People often consume hot drinks such as coffee when driving to their destinations. Time spent in traffic delays and traveling long distances, for example, turns an enjoyable hot drink into a cold distasteful liquid. Heat from the beverage transfers quickly to the ambient surroundings.
Prior art devices include insulated beverage receptacles and hot plates or warmers. Insulated receptacles simply prolong the heat dissipation process. They can elongate the period in which the user considers the beverage enjoyable, but cannot maintain an elevated beverage temperature. Hot plates introduce some heat into the beverage through the bottom area of certain receptacles. However, this hot plate type of heating does not evenly distribute heat throughout the beverage. The reason is very little receptacle surface area contacts the hot plate, therefore minimizing heat transfer through the receptacle to the beverage. Additionally, this type of heater limits the type of receptacle materials that one can place onto them. Certain plastics and other low melting temperature materials will deform or melt when they contact a hot plate. Finally, some problems with other heated beverage apparatus is their design complexity and manufacturing difficulties, lack of thermal adjustability and circuit protection, and poor stability in mobile applications, to mention a few. Therefore, a necessity exists in the art for a simple, electrically heated beverage appliance that thermally maintains an elevated level of a hot beverage contained therein.